Towards a Praxis of Justice and Community: Solidarity and Resistance in the University

Lecture organised by CESSMIR and a collective of scholars from all five Flemish Universities as part of doctoral school ‘What does it mean to be a researchers in 21st century academia’

Emancipatory scholars and students within the academy face a dilemma: the university is meant to be a space of exploration, possibility, and pushing boundaries; and yet, as the past year has exemplified, the university is continually being moulded by neoliberal imperatives that constrain the capacity for mobilisation and dissent. This session discusses the merits and limitations of institutional engagement and change; the dangers of co-optation and dilution; but also the liberatory and subversive potential that still exists within the classroom. The persistence of students and teachers in acts of solidarity and resistance provide a basis for hope and action. How can we learn from these experiences to cultivate a long-term praxis of justice and community both on and off campus?

Dr Jasmine K. Gani is Assistant Professor of International Relations Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She writes and teaches on (anti)colonialism, race, knowledge production, theory and history of International Relations, and ideologies and social movements in the Middle East. Her research has been published in International Studies Quarterly, Security Dialogue, International Affairs, Postcolonial Studies, and Millennium, among others. She was guest co-Editor of the 100th anniversary special issue of International Affairs on ‘Race and Imperialism in International Relations’, which examined the nexus between academic knowledge production and colonial policies. She has authored and co-edited books on anti-colonialism, the politics of the Middle East, and the Syrian conflict. Prior to joining the LSE in September 2024, she was a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St Andrews, where she was co-Director of the Centre for Syrian Studies. She was previously an Editor of the journal Millennium, and currently sits on the editorial board of International Affairs.